OT-conditioning a football

Hey guys-I just ordered ten new all leather footballs for my team. When they came in they were hard as a rock and they don't have a lot of grip. Last year I used a rubber Nike ball and it was good for a few weeks but died quickly. If you can help I would appreciate it. If you could restrain from making jokes about your nuts I would appreciate that as well...but I can understand if you don't. It's a subject about balls. Thanks for the help.

This kind of pisses me off, because I have a new sales rep that I contracted with who has been selling football gear for 27 years. He said the GST was the most popular middle school ball in the entire United States.

The football is hard as a rock. I brought one home to try and start breaking it in so my roommates and I have some beers and start throwing this thing around in the yard and it breaks our damn hands. I took some air out of it and made it about 11.5 pounds instead of 12 and it is still tough. Guess I better give it a month

Use a hair brush that has the soft bristles on it. I think they are called boar brushes but im not completely sure about that. It should help with grip and eventually soften them up. here is a link to what it looks like. http://www.amazon.com/Diane-Reinforced-Boar-Bristle-Brush/dp/B000ZN39TG/ref=sr_1_5?s=beauty&ie=UTF8&qid=1301879532&sr=1-5

We use the GST and have had no issues. Yes, they are hard but have always had good grip. I do prefer to throw an older ball myself, but our players do not complain about new balls. In fact, we typically use a new game ball every week on varsity, which then gets passed down to JV and then freshman.

Skip them off the track... Have your quarterbacks play catch back and forth skipping them off the track. That way it wears down the ball a bit and gets you grip. They won't be as hard anymore because they will be broken in.

Last year, MHSAA rules mandated that Rawlings balls be used for the playoffs so we picked up a dozen or so. The all-leather ball was so hard we decided to go to the composite. We have Wilson GSTs in the bag but they've been relegated to kicking practice. Maybe the OP can see if Wilson has a composite or rubber ball that suits the QBs/WRs.

The MHSAA site seems to be down so I don't know if the Rawlings ball is still "in play."